Instant coffee tastes like dirt. Doesn't taste anything like coffee. You won't find a jar of it in our house. It's a pity, because some of the jars are handy.

If I go into a cafe and the barista looks too young for my liking, I try somewhere else.

I don't like the 'Nespresso' machines for ecological reasons. Those used pods don't all end up in landfill and it can't be good for the environment.

We use Lavazza Oro, or Rosso, and a simple coffee plunger. Half a cup of milk in the microwave and voila, almost cafe grade coffee. We buy the small packs and keep it sealed in the freezer to keep it fresh.

Last week, the missus was given a bag of Columbian coffee beans from one of her Columbian students (I wonder what else she can provide... ;-). So we grind just enough for a plunger in the spice grinder and it makes a niiiiiice cuppa coffee.